The present invention relates to methods and systems for identifying payment cards which are associated through their pattern of use, for example, multiple payment cards used by an individual, or by several individuals residing in the same household, for example.
Payment devices, such as debit cards and credit cards, are used for transactions at a wide variety of merchants. It is relatively common for an individual or for different members of a household to use multiple cards or other devices issued by different issuing institutions such as banks. Quite frequently, a purchaser may attempt a transaction on one card which is declined for one reason or another (for example, due to there being insufficient credit in the account linked to the card), and subsequently use an alternative card to attempt the same transaction.
Although it is possible to identify all of the cards associated with an individual if the cards are all issued by the same bank, since the cards may automatically be associated with the individual in the bank's database, this is not possible where there are different issuing institutions. Further, it may not be possible to identify linked cards associated with different individuals even when they reside in the same household.
There remains a need for a method of identifying cards which are associated with each other by their usage pattern.